Hello Francis, teachers have being saying that self inquiry is a way the seperate self strenghtens itself, they also claim meditation does the same and that enlightenment is an energetic shift, in other words the self inquiry hasnt got the power to release the tension of being a seperate person, do you feel there is a way to release the physical tension of feeling like a seperate person?
Yes, there are many ways.
One of them is called Advaita, the old fashioned way, the way of the Rishis, of Ashtavakra, Janaka, Gaudapada, Shankara, Ramana Maharshi, Atmananda Krishna Menon, Ramakrishna, Jean Klein, Robert Adams, Robert Linssen, Wolter Keers, among many others: listening to the Truth from the lips of the teacher, investigating along the lines that have been suggested (self inquiry, higher reasoning, discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the seer and the seen, etc), meditating. It is during this third stage that the residues of ignorance stored in the body in the form of postural attitudes and dynamic patterns get released. The investigation leads to glimpses of Truth; we are left every time in a state of openness which allows for the release of the chronic and semi conscious tensions that perpetuate the illusion of being a separate entity.
Another way is the path of the Buddha, the direct path of the School of Sudden Awakening of Northern China, the path of Bodhidharma, Hui Neng, Huang Po, Hui Hai, Lin Tsi, Wei Wu Wei and many others: listening to the Dharma from the lips of the teacher, meditating and living with the teaching until the first glimpse of “our original face”, a samadhi which will be followed by many others, “as many as there are grains of sand on the banks of the Ganga river” (Huei Neng). Each of these instantaneous recognitions of our Buddha nature leaves the disciple in a state of openness that allows for the release of the physical tensions tied to ignorance, until all distinctions between self and non-self are abolished.
Another way is the path of Jesus: “I am” is the way, the Truth, and the Life. Nobody can have access to the Father (the Absolute) except through this “I am” This is the Christian version of self inquiry which leads to the “peace that passeth the mind”, a peace in which one “is still and knows this”I am“”. In this peace, all the tensions of the body get released, the body becomes a “glorious body”, a body baptized or “christed” (ointed in ancient Greek) with the shine of Presence.
Another way is the path of the Sufi, the path of Hallaj, of Rumi, Hafiz, Ibn Arabi, Sheikh Abd el Kader and many others: there is nothing but God. Allowing for the body to dissolve in His Presence like the darkness at sunrise, the truthlover is addicted to the perfume of his own vanishing.
There are many more ways.
The keyword is Love.
Francis
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